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Avast : Largest Security Company in the World, Fighting the Cyber Attacks

Having more than 435 million users worldwide, Avast Software is the biggest antivirus providers in the world. Headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, the company was founded by two people who avoided opting for physics in college, to avoid entering into politics and joining Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The thirty years of history of this cybersecurity company once had started with a team of 40 people, and after thirty years, it has approximately 1,700 employees, across its 25 offices worldwide. The company not only have the largest number of global users, but it also had the biggest tech IPO of 2018.

The Founders

Two Czech software engineers Pavel Baudis and Eduard Kucera, founded Avast in 1988 almost 31 years ago, as Alwil.

Eduard-Kucera-Pavel-Baudis
Image Source: usatoday.com

Baudis was a graduate from the Prague University of Chemical Technology and majored in Information Technology. After graduating from the university, he started working as a Graphics Specialist at the Mathematical Research Institute. In 1986, the first computer virus came into being, and, after two years, in 1988, Baudis wrote the first antivirus program to remove it.

The other co-founder of Avast, Eduard Kucera was born in 1953 and was graduated from the Charles University.

Kucera also worked at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines, where he met Baudis.

According to Forbes (2017), both Baudis and Kucera are the 8th wealthiest men in the Czech Republic.

Founding Avast

Working at RIMM, Pavel Baudis came across a virus named Vienna and developed the first program to remove it. The success of the program made him think of founding Alwil, a cooperative to develop antivirus, with Kucera.

In the 80’s it was prohibited to have private ownership, so the two co-founders left the Research Institute of Mathematical Machines, in order to found Alwil, under Socialist Union of Youth (the only legal private-owned business entity at that time). They developed the first software named Avast under Alwil.

In 1991, they turned the cooperative into a joint partnership, in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Due to the Velvet Revolution, there was a huge change in the country’s economy. In 1995, the company released its first antivirus program for Windows 95, written by Alwil employee, Ondrej Vlcek . In the 90s the software became really popular, and Avast received an award from the IT security testing organization, at the Virus Bulletin.

The late 90s were not very good for the company, financially. So in 2001, the company launched a freemium program, in which the users could use its basic product, for free. By 2004, the number of free users grew to a million, and in just two years the number had multiplied twenty times.

In 2010, the company was rebranded as Avast, raising $100 million in venture capital investments. Till 2013, Avast had extended its services in 38 countries, in 43 languages and 200 million people using the software.

In 2014, Avast valued at $1 billion after CVC Capital bought an interest in Avast. The company also launched its mobile app in the same year. In 2015, it became the biggest antivirus company in the world, having the largest share in the market for antivirus software.

In 2016, Avast acquired AVG, for $1.3 billion, and in the following year, it acquired UK-based company Piriform. In May 2018, the company went public on the London Stock Exchange and valued at £2.4 billion. It was one of the biggest technology listings of UK.

Gill Shwed : The Israeli Inventor & the Pioneer of the Cybersecurity

Computer’s security has been the biggest issue, even if its a PC or a huge work station. Also, as the Internet is a vulnerable place, the data security has become a major concern. But thanks to those who have been working to maintain the cybersecurity, and are, continuously, providing proper protection from various threats and malware. One of such computer scientists, who are responsible for the basic computer security, is Gill Shwed. This Israeli software engineer is one of the extraordinary personalities who has a big share in the development of the cybersecurity and is considered as the inventor of the modern firewall.

Early Life

The 50 years old Israeli software engineer, Shwed, was born Jerusalem, Israel, in 1968. He was merely 13 when he grew interested in computer programming and started practising it. Being a bright student at the school, and having mastered computer programming at a young age, he was able to get enrolled at Hebrew University in Jerusalem to study computer science, at the age of 15. When he got admission into the college, he was still in the high school.

Gill Shwed
Image Source: ifi.today

Career

After completing his education, Shwed joined the Israel Defense Forces and served the Intelligence Corps Unit 8200, where he worked on securing classified networks. Soon after completing the military service, he joined an Israeli startup company Optrotech, as a software developer.

Founding Check Point

In 1993, Shwed joined his hands with Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer, to found a computer software and hardware company, Check Point. Nacht was his colleague from Optrotech and Kramer was a friend from his military unit.

The foundation of Check Point was based on the core technology, the stateful inspection. The first product the company launched was the FireWall-1. It then developed the world’s first VPN, the VPN-1. The two products were inspired by Shwed’s work at the military.

Soon, Check Point raised its first round of funding from the BRM Group. Just the next year, in 1994, Sun Microsystems signed an OEM agreement with CheckPoint, and HP too signed the same agreement with the company in 1995. The same year, Check Point established its head office in Redwood City, California. In the following year, the company went public on NASDAQ and raised $67 million from its IPO.

Check Point and Nokia came together in 1998. The two companies bundled their software together, i.e. Check Point’s security software and Nokia’s Computer Network Security Appliances.

Check Point acquired many startups and companies, including Zone Labs (2003), Protect Data (2006), NFR security (2006), Nokia’s network security business unit (2009), Liquid Machines (2010), etc. In March 2018, Check Point along with SanDisk launched Check Point GO, a USB drive to turn a PC into a secure corporate desktop.

In 2016, the company’s revenue was estimated around US$1.741 billion and the net income at US$ 725 million. In the same year, total 3,500 employees were working in the company.

Personal Life

Shwed holds Israeli citizenship and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2002, he got featured on the cover of the billionaire issue of Forbes. He has received a doctorate degree in Science from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in 2005. He was named in the list of world’s 100 top young leaders by the World Economic Forum’s Global Leader for Tomorrow. He became the first recipient of Israel Prize in technology.

Apart from programming and computing, Shwed has immense interest in cooking and photography.